1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for manufacturing a slide fastener chain which shapes like a rotary table, and more particularly to a slide fastener manufacturing apparatus which can sequentially carry out a predetermined machining by intermittently rotating and transferring a plurality of fastener stringers in a holding state for each of a plurality of machining portions arranged on a circumference.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there has been used an apparatus for manufacturing a fastener chain which attaches a slider and an upper stopper to carry out a machining while holding a continuous slide fastener chain (hereinafter referred to as a fastener chain) in a horizontal state and moving the same slide fastener chain in a longitudinal direction thereof, for example (see JP-A-6-209810, for example).
In an apparatus 100 for manufacturing a fastener chain described in JP-A-6-209810, various machining portions such as a cutter portion 101, a slider inserting portion 102 and an upper stopper attaching portion 103 are sequentially arranged in series along a moving path in the longitudinal direction of a fastener chain C as shown in FIG. 16.
When the fastener chain C is to be finished by using the conventional fastener chain manufacturing apparatus 100, a tip portion in the longitudinal direction of the fastener chain C in a closing state is held horizontally by means of a pair of left and right inserting grippers 104 and 104 and the fastener chain C is transferred over the cutter portion 101, the slider inserting portion 102 and the upper stopper attaching portion 103. During the transfer of the fastener chain C, a slider 105 is inserted through the fastener chain C and an upper stopper 106 is attached to the fastener chain C divided into two portions by the insertion of the slider 105 respectively. The rear end of the fastener chain C reaching the cutter portion 101 is cut to finish the fastener chain C in a predetermined length. By sequentially repeating this operation, the next fastener chain C having a predetermined length is finished.
In the same manner as the technique described in JP-A-6-209810, moreover, there has been known another fastener chain manufacturing apparatus having a plurality of machining portions provided serially from a supply side to a discharge side of the fastener chain (see JP-B-6-71446 and JP-B-7-40962, for example).
Also in the fastener chain manufacturing apparatuses described in JP-B-6-71446 and JP-B-7-40962, various machining such as the insertion of a slider and the attachment of an upper stopper are carried out while the fastener chain is transferred horizontally over each machining portion. JP-A-6-209810, JP-B-6-71446 and JP-B-7-40962 have been proposed by the applicant.
JP-A-6-209810, JP-B-6-71446, and JP-B-7-40962 are referred to as related art.
The fastener chain manufacturing apparatus 100 described in each of JP-A-6-209810, JP-B-6-71446 and JP-B-7-40962 is configured by serially providing each of the machining portions such as the cutter portion 101, the slider inserting portion 102 and the upper stopper attaching portion 103 along a transfer path extended on a straight line.
For this reason, the fastener chain C is transferred in a horizontal state over all of the machining portions 101 to 103 provided on the straight line from the supply side toward the discharge side of the fastener chain C so that the single fastener chain C having a predetermined length to be a product object can be processed as described above.
In the conventional fastener chain manufacturing apparatus 100, however, only the single fastener chain C can be transferred and predetermined machining are sequentially carried out one by one in the machining portions 101 to 103, and the next fastener chain C cannot be transferred until all of the machining works of the machining portions 101 to 103 are completed in respect of a structure thereof. In other words, the next fastener chain C cannot be started to be processed until the fastener chain C having the predetermined length to be formed into a product is transferred over all of the machining portions 101 to 103.
Consequently, the operation of a machining device in each of the machining portions 101 to 103 is completed in order of the machining and the former fastener chain C is discharged from the manufacturing apparatus, and thereafter, the operation of the machining device is inevitably repeated sequentially to carry out the machining over the next fastener chain C in the same manner as the former fastener chain C.
As a result, the machining devices of the machining portions 101 to 103 completing the machining are to stop the operations until the operations of the machining devices of all the machining portions 101 to 103 for the fastener chain C are completed, and are to stand by for a time taken until the next fastener chain C is transferred. Moreover, the machining device which has not carried out the machining is to stand by without doing anything until the fastener chain C reaches a machining position. Accordingly, there is a problem in that the standby time of the machining device is prolonged, resulting in a deterioration in the operation efficiency of the machining device. In addition, there is also a problem in that the cycle time of a machining is prolonged, resulting in an increase in a machining cost per product.
The conventional fastener chain manufacturing apparatus has introduced various automatic apparatuses to be used for a necessary measurement for an automatic operation other than the machining to be carried out by each of the machining portions and the confirmation and check of a machining part. In the case in which the automatic apparatus of this type is to be introduced, there is also a problem in that the cycle time of the machining is prolonged still more together with the machining time of each of the machining portions and a machining cost per product is increased very sharply.
In the conventional fastener chain manufacturing apparatus, thus, when the automatic apparatus is introduced into existing equipment, a working efficiency is deteriorated. Consequently, there has been a limit to mass-produce the product with high precision in a predetermined cycle time or to carry out a high-speed production.